ADRIAN SMITH RELEASES MONSTERS OF RIVER & ROCK ON SEPTEMBER 3RD

If you’re even remotely a fan of Iron Maiden, you probably know that Adrian Smith is a huge fishing enthusiast. This first came to my attention when the band released their album and DVD called Rock In Rio. The bonus section on the DVD is full of a lot of great material, including Adrian and his love for fishing. So it comes as no surprise that he’s decided to put a book together detailing this part of this life, as well as his musical career.

The book focuses several different types of fishing styles, as well as mixes in stories from throughout his life on the road with Iron Maiden.

Here is Adrian Smith discussing his book Monsters Of River & Rock:

Here is Adrian Smith unboxing the book for the first time:

Earlier this week all of the metal sites went nuts over two things Adrian discussed in an interview with Eonmusic, you can check the entire interview out here. The two main tidbits everyone went ape shit over was the fact that he was offered the spot Vivian Campbell eventually got in Def Leppard. And that he’s working on a super secret project.

So the first topic of conversation, Adrian Smith joining Def Leppard. Adrian is kind of coy about answering this questions, saying:

Well, emmm… [long pause] I was, yeah. Yeah I was. I’m not sure… I want to write more books; that might be in my next one! [laughing] There’s whole story about that, there’s a whole story about that.

Ultimate Classic Rock has done a great job compiling various interviews that where done over the years with various members of Def Leppard discussing the topic. They go on to state (paraphrasing) that although Vivian was their first choice all along, they jammed with Adrian Smith and John Sykes(among others)! They go as far as to mention that the guitarist’s singing ability was more important than their actual playing. This is completely shocking to me on multiple levels.

Vivian has been little more than an employee in the band, his song writing credits are few and far between, as are his solos. You can listen to his work with Last In Line, and Riverdogs, and really hear him cut loose. It’s as if his day job pays the bills (Def Leppard) and then his other projects he’s doing for fun.

As much as I love Vivian as a player, he had money issues with Dio, and Whitesnake, seems as if at the end of the day, Def Leppard is paying him what he wants, and that’s more or less his only concern. If not, why would someone of his caliber not want a bigger piece of the pie? I’m guessing his train of thought is steady job, steady income why rock the boat?

With regards to the others they tried, Sykes has always been known for his strong personality, I can’t imagine him sitting back just taking orders. He’s also notorious for taking a very long time doing everything. Case in point his new solo album, working with Mike Portnoy, or reuniting Blue Murder. Sykes is a monster vocalist, just check out the classic self-titled Blue Murder. So vocals really couldn’t be an issue with him.

With Adrian, I kind of see the same thing, I mean, imagine the conversation “we know you’ve had massive input in Iron Maiden all of these years, but we want you to come in and just do as your told”. I’m not saying that’s how it went down, but given what’s been said about Vivian over the years by Joe Elliott and Phil Collen, that’s kind of what I would expect.

Also, we’re not talking about Vivian being Freddy Mercury here. Adrian sung lead with A.S.A.P., and provided backing vocals in Maiden, Primal Rock Rebellion and more. Again, it isn’t as if Adrian’s voice sounds like Mandy Lion or something so drastically different that it wouldn’t fit with Def Leppard.

I personally don’t buy the whole had to be a great singer deal, to me given what’s been said over the years, it comes down to who was going to be a good soldier, and take orders.

You can read Ultimate Classic Rock’s article here.

The last thing people have been wondering about is Adrian’s secret project. Eonmusic asked about another album outside of Maiden, and his response was this:

I do, I do. I’m very excited about it, but I can’t say. I’m doing a lot of singing, but the person I’m working with, we’re sort of splitting the vocals. But that’ll be coming. I’m very excited about it, but I’m sworn to secrecy at the moment.

In order to post here on TalkingRock.net, I go through emails, and various other sites, to see if there is anything worth writing about. I hit Blabbermouth up every day, and right after I read about the Eonmusic interview (on Bravewords to be exact), I saw the following headline on Blabbermouth:

IRON MAIDEN’s ADRIAN SMITH is ‘Very Excited’ About His Rumored Collaboration With RICHIE KOTZEN

Blabbermouth and their team has done an excellent job at culling together social media posts, and quotes from various interviews which lead them to the conclusion that Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen are working together. You can check out the Blabbermouth article here.

Although I can’t consider myself more than a casual fan of Kotzen’s work, I’m a huge Adrian Smith fan, and will check out any project he’s working on regardless of who’s involved. Does the pairing of Adrian and Richie sound good to you? Would Adrian have fit in with Def Leppard? Sound off below.

Article by Victor M. Ruiz of Mars Attacks Radio & Podcast, and Galaxy Of Geeks Podcast.  Connect with him on Twitter:  @vmr907